Cooper Flagg was a star, but what went wrong in Duke basketball’s loss to Kentucky?

ATLANTA — Poor shooting, self-inflicted mistakes and untimely injuries.

Those were the contributing factors that led to Duke basketball’s first loss of the season, a 77-72 gut punch against No. 19 Kentucky at the Champions Classic in Georgia. 

The sixth-ranked Blue Devils (2-1) led for most of the night at State Farm Arena, but critical mistakes in the final minutes cracked the door for the Wildcats (3-0), who walked right through it to beat Duke for the first time since 2015.

“Give Kentucky credit for the plays they made. I think they showed incredible maturity and their experience came out in that second half, no question,” head coach Jon Scheyer said.

“For us, it’s disappointing, because you’re winning for 27 minutes. Our guys competed, they played hard.”

Competition certainly wasn’t the issue in a classic thriller between a pair of blue blue programs, but execution was lacking down the stretch and it doomed the Devils.

“It came down to one more play at the end,” Scheyer said. “. … For us, we’re going to learn and grow from this, I promise you that.”

Here’s a breakdown of what led to the Blue Devils’ first loss of the season.

Cooper Flagg was sensational for Duke basketball, but turnovers were critical

In his first big-time opportunity against a big-time opponent, Cooper Flagg proved why the hype surrounding him is validated. The 6-foot-9 Duke freshman finished with 26 points and 12 rebounds, scoring 14 of the Blue Devils’ 26 points in the second half.

But after finishing with one turnover in the first half to take a nine-point lead into the locker room, Duke had six turnovers in the second half and Kentucky flipped the script with a 14-point advantage in the final 20 minutes.

Duke had 11 points off turnovers in the first half and Kentucky had zero. In the second half, the Wildcats had a 9-4 edge in that category.

Flagg committed three turnovers in the final two minutes, including back-to-back giveaways in the final 12 seconds. Still, the Blue…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/cooper-flagg-star-went-wrong-080936881.html

Author : The Fayetteville Observer

Publish date : 2024-11-13 08:09:00

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